Candy May Not Make You All That Fat, Study Says

Revenge could be sweet for the candy crowd. The Vancouver Sun reports a new study finds kids who eat candy weigh less and are less likely be overweight than their counterparts munching on carrots.

This revolutionary study was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a big chunk of the funding came from the National Confectioners Association. You know, the people who make candy.

Great, so this may be a little like the International Brotherhood of Heroin Pushers Local 839 funding a study that concludes heavy narcotics are essential for building strong bones and teeth.

Still, data is data.

Researchers at Louisiana State University (hardly puppets of Big Chocolate) found kids who ate candy were 22 percent less likely to be overweight and 28 percent less likely to be obese.

So stick that in your bean curd, and do whatever is you do with bean curd. (What? You eat it? Gross!)

Carol O'Neil, a registered dietitian and professor at Louisiana State University's Agricultural Center, led researchers in tracking the eating habits of kids ages 2 to 17 between 1999 and 2004.

While chocolate is indisputably the food of the gods, O'Neil tells the Vancouver Sun she is not suggesting parents fill the family swimming pool with M&Ms in lieu of dinner. In fact, even though young candy eaters aren't getting fat, she still called their their diets "abysmal."

"Children need to eat better than they are eating now," O'Neil tells the Sun. "Candy can certainly be used as some sort of celebratory treat or an occasional treat."